The Lowell Sharp Invitational hosted by Jeffco

2020
—
Wheat Ridge,
CO/US

Your team is cordially invited to the 2020 Lowell Sharp Invitational (Hosted by Jeffco) to be held at Wheat Ridge High School on February 8th. We hope you will join us for a great day of speech and debate competition.

In the spirit of supporting our colleagues and their concerns, we are offering JV CX Debate. This division is designed for first year competitors in CX Debate. JV CX debate is limited to freshman and sophomore CX debaters or students in their first year of competition.

Special Note about JV CX: JV CX will be ran with the following restrictions:

We will offer two divisions of CX if there are at least 6 teams registered in each division; otherwise, we will collapse the divisions into a single event. In the event of a single event, the rules will default to Varsity CX rules and restrictions.

THERE IS NO DOUBLING.

Entries:

Each school may enter up to 24 events entries (Duo teams count as one entry)

Each school may enter up to 12 debate entries (one varsity CX team counts as TWO entries, but a novice CX team or a PF team counts as ONE entry). Debate will be power-matched.

Each school may enter up to 6 student congress competitors.

There is no maximum number allowed in any event, but each school must realize that if it enters many students in one event, those students may compete against each other in preliminary rounds.

Pre-Registration and Registration: Pre-registration will be through tabroom.com. Register soon and update often as necessary because this tournament usually closes. We will accept registrations until we reach our capacity and/or at 4:00pm on February 1, 2020. You will be automatically e-mailed through tabroom.com when you register or make changes.

Computers: Students will be allowed to use laptop computers in rounds as per the rules created by NSDA for District Tournaments. If you are not familiar with these rules, consult the NSDA District Tournament Manual. Students may use laptops in debate/extemp/congress rounds BUT they may NOT use the internet, as per the NSDA pilot program. The Jeffco coaches have decided not to participate in the pilot.

Schedule: Registration is 7:00am—7:30pm at Wheat Ridge High School. Your team must be registered by 7:30am to be eligible for the first round. Rounds will be scheduled to efficiently utilize available judges and rooms. We will schedule rounds as quickly as possible. It is, therefore, not a good idea to leave the tournament site for more than a few minutes. Competitors who miss a round will be dropped from the tournament.

Fees: Fees are $10.00 per competitor–and $20.00 per CX team or PF team and Duo team–and $8.00 per competitor in Student Congress. Fees are charged on pre-registration numbers as of 4:00pm on February 1, 2020.

Awards: Trophies will be awarded for first, second and third places in each speech event, debate awards for first and second places. Ribbons will be awarded for Finalists and undefeated debaters not advancing to finals; additionally, Superior and Excellent ribbons will be awarded tostudents not advancing to finals. The usual Congress awards will be presented.

Congress Legislation and Rules: All bills and resolutions should be e-mailed to Tammie Peters at tpeters@jeffco.k12.co.us by Wednesday, January 29, 2020. The dockets will be available to all schools by Friday, January 31, 2018. All schools with students in Congress are asked to submit at least one piece of legislation. The entire day will be considered a single session in Congress. New judges will be assigned in the afternoon and new presiding officers will be elected. However, precedence carries over from the morning and one set of speaker awards per house will be presented. We will use the NSDA rules: every speaker gets up to 3 minutes to speak and up to 1 minute of questions. Please refer to the NSDA manual for clarification.

Rules: CHSAA Rules will be used. NSDA Rules for Congress will be followed.

Judging: Since judging is critical to a successful tournament, all schools are required to provide a judge for a minimum of two rounds without pay. Coaches or a designated judge may cover these unpaid rounds. Please be sure to let the judges table know who will be covering this obligation. One session of congress (morning or afternoon) may be used to fulfill a school’s judging requirement. Any other rounds judged by the coach (or designated judge) will be paid. Coaches unavailable for judging at any time they are assigned may forfeit their students’ advancement to finals. Therefore, it would be advisable for any coach who has to leave the building to check out at the judges’ table. Remember, a coach who is responsible for your team must be on site at all times. Any school with competitors in debate events should bring one qualified debate judge for every six debaters. Also, judges are crucial for tournaments: please invite all experienced judges you know to attend this tournament – we would love to hire them.

Ballot Room: The ballot room will be open to coaches.

Food: There will be a concession stand for students. Fast food restaurants are sparse in the Wheat Ridge area. Lunch and snacks throughout the day will be provided for coaches and judges.

Miscellany:

Please leave public radios at home – all music should be personal.

No smoking is allowed anywhere on the campus.

Please remind students they may not enter rooms until the judge(s) are in the room. Facilities which are misused are seldom used again, and we can all benefit from more, not fewer, tournaments.